


Bechloe Week 2018: Let's Pretend It's Canon

by scentedglitter



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Bechloe Week, Bechloe Week 2018, F/F, Fluff, I am doing bechloe week twice what am I doing why did I commit to this, bechloe - Freeform, bechloeweek, oneshots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-06-14 23:52:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15400359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scentedglitter/pseuds/scentedglitter
Summary: One-off oneshots for Bechloe Week 2018, Monday July 23 - Sunday July 29, largely based in the movies.Rated mature for swear-y-ness.Now trying to finish in September for the sake of finishing.





	1. Accidental Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bechloe Week prompt 1: "Accidental Kiss".  
> Set between PP2 and PP3 in the Beca/Chloe/Amy New York apartment.
> 
> (It's 6pm Monday Australian time posting is justified)

Beca tried to fight Fat Amy’s insistence on taking the entire double bed for herself in the studio apartment. Beca was paying the largest share of their rent, Chloe a close second, and Amy far from it despite occasionally mumbling in her sleep about her family being billionaires. The bed was bigger than the fold-out, even though they were meant to be the same size, and Beca tried to compromise that her and Chloe would share and Amy could have the entire fold-out to herself, but no. Amy couldn’t be argued with, and Beca had learnt long ago after being her roommate at the Bellas house for two years that sometimes it wasn’t worth trying. She had little concept of fairness.

So, reluctantly, Beca and Chloe picked sides of the fold-out couch to share as their bed in their little New York studio apartment, and settled into a routine of sleeping ever closer together because the mattress wasn’t even and tipped them both into the centre of the bed through the night. Initially, Beca tried to care that sleeping beside each other was pushing the already confusing boundaries of their friendship, but as the months passed, it became more and more difficult.

It wasn’t a new realisation to her that her feelings for Chloe were a little more than platonic. She couldn’t pick a certain moment in her college career when she’d suddenly realised she had a crush on her best friend, in the same way that she couldn’t pick out when Chloe became her _best_ friend. It just happened, and by the end of her sophomore year it was clearly cemented. Unlike the best friend thing, however, Chloe had no idea about the crush. It probably didn’t help that Beca had kept up with dating Jesse despite the fact that she was pretty sure even he realised she had a thing for Chloe.

Beca and Jesse had a convenient breakup at the end of college. They were moving to different parts of the country, and they’d drifted apart anyway. There were no hard feelings because there weren’t any feelings left in the first place.

“I hope you end up with Chloe,” Jesse had commented, casually, as they said their awkward final goodbyes in a café on campus at Barden.

Beca spluttered down the mouthful of coffee she’d just taken in surprise, not because of the Chloe thing, but because ending up with her wasn’t something that ever figured in her mind. Chloe didn’t feel the same. They were just friends.

“Oh, come on, don’t pretend you don’t have a thing for her,” Jesse half-laughed, and Beca shook her head.

“Dude, ending up with her would require her having a thing for me,” she defended, and he just shrugged.

“It’s pretty obvious she does.”

Beca didn’t see it then, and she still didn’t see it when they moved into their apartment.

“She’s moving in with you, dude! You’re sharing a bed!” Stacie had enthused, but Beca just rolled her eyes.

“Amy’s moving in with me too and god knows she doesn’t like me like that. Also it’s entirely her fault Chloe and I are sharing.”

As the months in their apartment passed, the three housemates fell into a routine. Amy’s routine largely involved being absent for long periods of time with dubious explanations that the other two learned to just roll with, but theirs was a little more homely. Chloe landed a paid internship at a veterinary clinic after deciding she wanted to be a vet (something that Chloe’s father told Beca was totally new, which surprised her, because it fit _so well_ ), and Beca had transferred to a sister-studio of the one she had starting interning at in Atlanta. She still didn’t get to do much actual producing, just fixing up things for other people and miscellaneous admin work, but it was a foot in the door. Or maybe two feet, now, given that the crappy coffee girl role she ended up with in college was the first foot.

Chloe left for work earlier, because her job was further away. Beca hated alarms, so instead, Chloe became a much more pleasant alarm, nudging her awake gently just before she left herself and placing a cup of coffee at the seat on their little table closest to Beca’s place in their bed. Beca got home later, so would either pick up takeout on her way home or let Chloe make dinner that would be ready when she arrived.

Beca took the cooking duties on weekends, of course, needing to make up for everything Chloe did for her during the week.

“I don’t mind making dinner for you,” Chloe had argued when Beca initially voiced her guilt, but Beca just shook her head.

“We should be doing things evenly.”

“We’re friends, Becs, not just housemates,” she had grinned, Beca pushing down the disappointment she felt whenever Chloe referred to them as friends. It was better than nothing, and if she had to settle, she’d settle.

Living so close to each other managed to bring them closer, and somehow, Beca found herself growing more careless about hiding her feelings. She cuddled up to Chloe while they watched TV, playing off that it was because it was cold in their apartment in winter and Chloe would’ve forced her to do it anyway if she hadn’t first. She got into a habit of buying flowers for Chloe from a florist just near her workplace whenever they had their seemingly regular crazy sale, claiming that it benefitted both of them anyway because it brought some colour into their poky little apartment (which was _true_ , dammit).

Whenever they went out – usually at Amy’s insistence when she was occasionally home for an evening – Beca would dance close to Chloe, because that’s what all the girls had done back at Barden. If a guy tried to shift Chloe’s attention to him, she’d get closer and try and shoot them a ‘back off’ look behind Chloe’s back, knowing that she was probably adding a ‘she’s mine’ to the look despite that not being entirely true. Chloe didn’t want to date while she was doing her veterinary internship, anyway. And okay, dating wasn’t one-time things with guys in clubs and she hadn’t told Beca any opinion on that, but she…

She didn’t have a justification. She just did it, and Chloe didn’t seem to mind (or notice), so she kept doing it.

After one particular Friday night out, eight months into their time living together, they had drunkenly ambled back up the stairs into their apartment and fallen into bed about 3am, falling into conversation rather than sleep as often happened after their nights out, especially when Amy had run off with someone as had happened that night.

“I miss sex…” Chloe mused, trailing off as she stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t just want to have sex with someone I don’t really know, these days, though.”

“I know what you mean…” Beca trailed off, unable to resist turning her own head to the side to watch Chloe, but Chloe’s eyes never left the ceiling, and not long later, they both drifted off to sleep.

The following Monday, their routine was as usual. Chloe woke up to her own quiet alarm, not realising that her moving her arms from around Beca where they had ended up cuddling overnight caused her best friend to wake up as she went to get ready. Beca chose to pretend she was still asleep, as she always did, listening as Chloe shuffled through her clothes to find an outfit and hearing the deep breathing from across the room indicating that their third housemate had got back at some point last night but was very much asleep at this point (and would probably remain so until they were both at work).

Chloe made a tea for herself and grabbed a bowl of cereal, scrolling through some late-night messages that had appeared in the Bellas facebook group chat overnight between an evidently drunk (on a Sunday!) Amy and Stacie, the occasional eye-rolling emoji from Aubrey present as always. She flicked on their small coffee machine – a present from Beca’s Dad, who despite still not entirely understanding her, did very much understand her desperate need for decent coffee in the morning – as she cleaned up her breakfast dishes and pulled out their best mug to make the coffee. As always, she sat it in front of the chair closest to their bed before sitting herself onto the bed beside where Beca was sleeping and running a hand up her arm through the covers.

Beca shifted slightly under Chloe’s touch as she feigned waking up, slowly opening her eyes to see her sitting on the bed beside her.

“That coffee smells really good this morning,” Beca mumbled, not taking too long to sit up and pull herself out of bed for the promise of caffeine.

“It’s the same as ever!” Chloe joked, but Beca just shook her head.

“You make the best coffee. You’re the best.”

Chloe laughed lightly before wandering back to the kitchen, making her lunch to take for the day, because she was trying to save money and buy lunch less often (even though the deli beside the clinic was insanely good). Beca simply watched, letting herself the particularly romantic thoughts about Chloe that had decided to make themselves at home in her mind on this morning.

“Okay, I should get going,” Chloe starts, and Beca turns up to face her and respond, just as Chloe leans down to kiss Beca’s cheek goodbye. It wasn’t something she did every day, but it wasn’t unusual. The fact that Beca’s movement meant Chloe’s lips landed on hers, instead of her cheek? That was new.

For both Beca and Chloe, instinct kicked in, Chloe pushing closer instead of pulling away as Beca brought her hand up to hold Chloe’s cheek.

“Holy shit, I’m sorry, I don’t know what-“ Chloe pulls back suddenly after thirty seconds, eyes wide and hand covering her mouth.

“Don’t apologise, Chloe, I’ll take it,” Beca reassures her, casually, a sly smile on her face as she watches Chloe tilt her head in confusion.

“What?”

“I always thought you’d be a good kisser. Anyway, you need to go to work, go on, don’t be late,” Beca pushes her, and still seeming to be trying to process Beca’s response, Chloe slowly grabs her bag and heads out the door.

“Damn, Mitchell,” Amy’s voice suddenly rises from beside the clothes hanger dividing it from the rest of the apartment, Beca rolling her eyes before she shifts in her chair to watch as their housemate emerges.

“Worth a shot.”

“You’ve changed,” Amy jokes, Beca quickly shrugging.

“Shit changes when you’re basically dating anyway.”

“Yes! Finally you see it! You guys have been practically dating for years-“

“Not years, Amy. Just the last few months. Anyway. What were you up to last night?”

Amy’s explanation takes up the rest of the time before Beca has to leave for work, and it distracts her from the fact that she literally kissed Chloe until she takes her phone out on her lunch break and realises that, for the first time that she can remember, Chloe hasn’t responded to the text she sent in her morning break asking what they were doing for dinner tonight. She’s at work, though, so she puts on a brave face as she starts to push down the realisation that, maybe, Chloe is totally creeped out by how okay she was with what happened.

Beca’s phone goes off a few times after lunch. She doesn’t usually take an afternoon break but just for today, she takes five minutes, diving for her phone in her bag as soon as it hits 3pm and speed-walking off to the break room. Chloe’s emoji-lacking “ _I’ll cook_ ” text does nothing to calm her worry.

Chloe is cooking when Beca gets home, both girls walking on eggshells as they avoid mentioning the tense air between them.

“What are you making?” Beca asks, her tone more cautious than she wants it to be.

“Just a stir-fry,” Chloe answers, and Beca tries not to interpret the emptiness of her tone.

“Sounds good.”

Neither say any more, Chloe continuing to stare down at the pan in front of her while Beca changes out of her workwear.

“I’m sorry I-“

“Why didn’t you-“

Both girls start talking at the same time, still sitting at the table after they’ve finished an awkward dinner of minimal small talk. Chloe doesn’t make a move to start again, so Beca does.

“I’m sorry if I freaked you out, Chloe. I didn’t turn to you on purpose, I just ran with it when it happened. Because I… I’m kind of in love with you, and I have been forever, and I don’t know how I possibly couldn’t be because you’re kind of perfect and you’re perfect for me… and I get that we’re just friends, and I’d probably love everything here even if I didn’t like you the way I do, but the more we settle into this domestic life together the more I just… fucking love you, dude. I’m sorry I kissed you. I’m sorry for… all of this,” Beca finishes, with a sigh, not wanting to watch Chloe’s reaction.

“I thought you’d freak out, I wasn’t freaked out,” Chloe’s response is brief, Beca sighing as she realises Chloe is probably trying to hold back from saying anything she means.

“But you are now?”

“No, Becs. I’m just… very used to not saying this, you know, and I hoped you felt the same, but I never expected you’d be the one to let it out. I’m kind of in love with you too.”

“Why’d you think I’ve been soliciting cuddles, Beale?” Beca shakes her head, finally looking up with a small smile to see Chloe reflecting it back.

“I hoped it was because you felt the same way.”

“It was.”

“Can I kiss you again?”

Beca chooses to respond with actions, almost leaping out of her chair and around the table to straddle Chloe’s lap and pull her into a firm kiss.


	2. Jealous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably the closest I'll ever get to a crack!fic (on the "OOC characters" side) because I was sleep deprived and in a shitload of a pain when I wrote it only a little bit sorry

“You do know I’m gay, right?” Beca asks Jesse, the second time he ambushes her with snacks and a movie when she’s sitting outside on campus just trying to get her daily dose of vitamin D while she works on a mix and pretends she isn’t meant to be at a lecture. She’s not stupid, she knows he’s got a thing for her.

“Nope…” Jesse trails off, an air of disappointment clear in his voice. Beca simply raises an eyebrow and gestures at her outfit choice, not dissimilar to the first time she met him, although this time the plaid shirt is red, not purple. “Okay, maybe I should’ve picked it,” he admits, after a moment, shrugging before he pushes a juice box over towards her. “I got berry flavoured today because I know you hate it and I totally don’t like you.”

“Great defence, dude,” she shakes her head, disbelieving. “Berry’s good, though.”

“You’re weird,” his response is more exasperated than insulting and it just makes her laugh.

“Says the guy that keeps ambushing a girl he doesn’t know to watch movies in the middle of the day?”

“We’re friends!”

Beca simply rolls her eyes at his desperate insistence, reluctantly closing her own laptop as he starts whatever godawful movie he’s going to subject her to on his own. She lets out an audible groan when she realises it’s Star Wars.

* * *

Chloe pretends not to notice her new – and reluctant – Bella recruit, Beca, and her seemingly regular catch-ups with Jesse in the area outside her dorm that she walks past often between classes. She doesn’t enter that dorm any more – she ended stuff with Tom for reasons she doesn’t want to admit after that shower duet with Beca – but she has classes one after the other on opposite sides of it and they always have to be watching their damn movies when she’s walking past.

Why did Beca tell her she hated movies if she was so happy to watch them with that Treble guy?

She manages to convince Beca to catch up outside Bellas rehearsals after their second rehearsal, and they set a time to meet at the radio station after one of her shifts and head to a diner nearby. Chloe is early, letting herself in and taking a seat amongst the stacks of records as she watches Beca open her eyes in some sort of fear and glance across at Luke, the station manager, but Chloe just shakes her head. She knows Luke. He had a thing with Aubrey last year, not that Aubrey would ever let her tell literally anyone.

Chloe winks at Beca across the room, placing a little too much hope in the half-smile that appears on her face before she quickly turns it back into a signature eye-roll. Chloe misses, of course, that Beca’s response when Jesse walks in ten seconds later is no parts playful faked grouchiness and entirely a frustrated sigh as he bounds over to her. Chloe only sees the bounding.

* * *

Beca likes Chloe. It’s not a statement that she’s been able to honestly think about another human for a very long time, and she doesn’t quite know how to express it, but she tries. She attends Bellas rehearsals. She even does the extra cardio Aubrey asks for, and sometimes she even drags Amy along with her to try and get her used to it so she stops complaining so much when they’re rehearsing. She isn’t _enthusiastic_ about the synchronised dance moves because it’d be entirely false of her to try that, but she doesn’t fight them. Especially when Chloe’s hands are on her guiding her in them, but she’s trying not to think that way.

When Chloe asks her to hang out at the diner near the campus radio station after she finishes work one day, she says yes before she can think to say anything else. She feels awkward, of course, when the day comes, but Chloe forces conversation so easily and comfortably that Beca can’t help but relax into the warmth of her presence, while simultaneously cringing at how fucking cheesy her thoughts about her are.

They’re friends, anyway, so she’s allowed to think those things about her, right? Appreciate her company?

* * *

Chloe puts substantial effort into growing her friendship with Beca over the first few months they know each other, and she tries to ignore the fact that Beca is increasingly talking about Jesse as well, but it really doesn’t work. Beca begrudgingly let her into her life, she knows, but with Jesse it seemed almost willing, and as much as she doesn’t want to admit it, it’s probably because there’s something more than friends going on.

If Chloe was _really_ vindictive, she’d probably use Aubrey’s insane Bellas rule about hooking up with Trebles – or, as she put it in her always-archaic way, fraternising – to find out if anything was really going on between the two, but she swore she wouldn’t go that far. She valued Beca’s company too much, and she’d finally managed to convince Aubrey that Beca was maybe actually doing a hell of a lot for their success and not hampering it. She didn’t want to mess it up.

“You know, I don’t have a rule against inter-Bella relationships,” Aubrey comments, seeing Chloe getting lost in her thoughts one afternoon in their shared apartment.

“Great? I think there’s something going on with Denise and Cynthia-Rose….” Chloe trails off, smiling as she shakes her head. “Maybe Jessica and Ashley too, there’s gotta be a reason we all can’t tell them apart.”

“I’m talking about you and the short one,” Aubrey retorts, and Chloe fakes a laugh.

“Just friends, Aubs.”

“You’re a bad liar.”

“She’s straight.”

“Have you seen how much flannel she wears?” Aubrey’s question is almost incredulous, and Chloe just raises an eyebrow and mumbles something about stereotypes before retreating into her own

* * *

 

“Usual diner date this week?” Chloe asks, partway into their second semester as she’s walking out of a Bellas rehearsal beside Beca. Walking out together has become a habit, as has grabbing a meal at the diner near the station after one of Beca’s shifts, usually the Friday night one because they do Friday night meal discounts.

“Nah, Jesse’s dragging me to some film thing, sorry,” Beca answers with a sigh, and Chloe winces internally.

“Oh, okay. Sure. Hope it’s fun.” She walks off, back towards Aubrey, not noticing the confused look Beca gives her in response.

Beca hated having to say no to Chloe but okay, so she was kind of friends with Jesse now too, a little bit because one time she was trying weird European beers with him (she preferred drinking with the Bellas, but she didn’t prefer the fruity shit they drank) and in a mildly tipsy state had admitted she might’ve had a thing for Chloe. She had to appease him to keep him on her good side, now. She didn’t trust him not to tell her or something, with how much he tried to push her to say something.

“No matter what this is I’m gonna hate it because I had to blow off dinner with Chloe for it so fuck you,” Beca greets Jesse outside her dorm, ever sociable, and he grins.

“Aw, missing dinner with your girl for me? I feel so special!” his voice rises and she gives him a light shove to the shoulder.

“It’s only because you asked first, idiot. Come on. Let’s go.”

He laughs loudly as they start walking away from the dorm, Beca letting half a grin cross her face at how much of a bumbling idiot he looks.

* * *

Chloe doesn’t plan to be outside Beca’s dorm when she meets Jesse for whatever thing they’re going to that night. She’s just… following Aubrey.

And Aubrey wasn’t here because…

…Chloe’s a _really_ bad liar. Even inside her own mind.

So, it was so obvious that Beca and Jesse were a thing, because Beca actually going out with the guy was so abnormal for her that it had to mean something. She told Aubrey. And, of course, Aubrey likes her rules, so there they were, casually stood behind a bush that gave them a perfect viewing angle of the front of Beca’s dorm.

They weren’t close enough to hear any conversation, until Jesse laughed loudly as they started walking in the opposite direction to where they were hiding – thank God – and Beca visibly smiled. Widely.

Aubrey audibly growled, evidently finding that evidence enough that they were together, and Chloe felt a little like she was going to be sick.

They had a rehearsal on Sunday evening. Chloe had made a deal with herself – and Aubrey – that she wouldn’t say anything. She wouldn’t act differently. If Beca wasn’t with Jesse, she’d probably complain loudly about whatever film he made her see on Friday. If she was, she’d say nothing but maybe quietly mention it to Chloe after, because they were totally best friends, and Chloe hoped that Beca trusted her enough to mention it, trusted her enough not to tell Aubrey.

A hypocritical hope, she’d admit, but it still remained.

* * *

Beca couldn’t quite put her finger on what was off about Chloe on Sunday, but it was _something_ , and it made her nervous. Chloe usually ran up to her in some form at least before the middle of the rehearsal, and they always walked out together, but Chloe seemed to be walking off with Stacie before Beca had even finished gathering up her stuff.

“Hey, Chloe,” she called out, pushing aside her need to seem completely unemotional and unconnected to the rest of the group for just a moment. She paused just long enough for Beca to catch up to her, Stacie waving at both of them and walking off, talking about needing to get to a date. Beca launched into her idea before she could change her mind. “Any chance you want to go to the diner tonight, since we missed Friday?”

To her quiet relief, Chloe agrees, and they fall into their normal conversation as they walk across campus, past her dorm and past the station, to the little diner. It’s quieter than when they usually visit, not having any particular Monday specials, but Beca certainly doesn’t mind. For once, when she returns to her dorm later that night, she feels energised and not exhausted from being social.

Chloe always seems to enjoy their catch-ups, so the next time Beca sees her at rehearsal on Tuesday evening, she expects Chloe to bound up to her and start talking about whatever’s happened in her last two days.

Instead, Chloe is late, arriving ten seconds before Aubrey calls start of practice. They’re divided into two groups under Chloe and Aubrey’s guidance to learn a couple dance routine changes for a new song they’re trying to work on, and Beca starts walking towards Chloe’s side of the room only to be entirely confused when Chloe doesn’t call her to be in her group. Chloe’s a better dance teacher than Aubrey, though, and maybe they thought Beca didn’t need the extra teaching this time or something. It’s Chloe, it’s not likely to be personal.

* * *

“How’s Jesse going?” Chloe asks, letting a sharp edge make itself known in her voice as Beca appears beside her, walking out of their Tuesday evening rehearsal.

“Um, I guess fine? I don’t know, haven’t seen him for a while,” Beca answers, and Chloe rolls her eyes.

“Friday’s a while, is it?”

“I guess?”

She doesn’t entertain the conversation any further, not interested in her supposed friend insulting her even further by trying to lie to her on top of not telling her about her goddamn boyfriend.

“What was the hobbit on about?” Aubrey asks her once they are both back at their apartment later in the evening, and Chloe rolls her eyes.

“Just being super sketchy about Jesse again.”

“Of course,” she scoffs, shaking her head, “I knew something was up with that girl.”

Part of Chloe’s brain screams at her to defend Beca, but she quietens it, reminding herself of what Beca’s been doing to her. Maybe Aubrey was right all along.

* * *

Beca doesn’t take shit from people. She applies that rule to everyone – it’s why she’s got such a terrible relationship with her father – regardless of how close they might have previously been. So, when Chloe is suddenly cool and snappy with her, she pulls back. Chloe throws scathing criticisms at her friendship with Jesse (which is weird), her exercise hang-outs with Fat Amy (she kinda gets that one because Amy is still a disruptive pain in rehearsals), how much she works at the station. The last is what really gets her, because god, not all of them have evidently rich-ass parents to support them through college like Chloe apparently does.

She cancels their next Friday night outing to the diner, telling Chloe she’s hanging out with Jesse again – which, thankfully, is not true, but she can see it riles her up and it’s in her nature to do that when she’s feeling defensive.

“Have a nice time with _Jesse_?” Chloe asks her not long into their one-off Saturday morning extra rehearsal, clear snark in her voice as she does.

“Nah, he cancelled,” Beca answers, crossing her arms and looking at Chloe as if challenging her to keep up the attitude. No one has _ever_ beaten her at this kind of game.

“Nice boyfriend you got then,” Chloe’s response is sharp, and Beca can’t help but let out a highly undignified snort in response.

“Boyfriend?!”

“We know you’ve got a stupid Treble boyfriend,” Aubrey jumps into the conversation, loudly, all the other Bellas – now in the seats that Beca was headed for before Chloe grabbed her attention – turning to face them.

“Um, what the fuck, no?” Beca retorts, still not able to stop herself from slightly laughing because it’s such an insanely ridiculous suggestion.

“Do you think my rules are a fucking joke, Beca?!” Aubrey raises her voice even further, the other Bellas wincing and Chloe nodding in support of her co-captain.

“Guys, are you not aware that I’m as gay as like… half this fucking group?” Beca responds, stepping further away from Aubrey and Chloe as she does, wandering over to her place with the other Bellas.

“Yeah, can confirm, Beca’s super gay,” Ashley backs her up, before quickly adding, “not because I’ve been with her or anything, I’m with Jessica.”

“Yeah, I can back that,” Cynthia-Rose adds, “both that those two are together-“ she gestures at Jessica and Ashley “- and that Beca’s gay. Have you seen her wardrobe?”

“And I mean, you should know, Aubs,” Stacie pipes up, a teasing lilt to her tone that confuses everyone else in the room.

“Shut up,” Aubrey mumbles, a visible blush adorning her cheeks, before she quickly turns to Chloe. “Why did you tell me she was with Jesse then, Chloe?”

“Because she is! I swear!” Chloe asserts.

“Dude, you’re kinda my best friend, I would’ve told you if I was dating someone. Even if it was a Treble fucker, but that really isn’t going to happen unless they lift their boys-only policy. And it probably wouldn’t even happen then,” Beca defends herself, choosing not to elaborate the last part of her statement unless someone pushes for it.

“Am I the only straight person here?” Amy asks, boisterous as ever, drawing everyone else’s attention away from the conflicting emotions displayed through Chloe’s changing expression as she stares at Beca.

“Are you really not with Jesse?” she asks, softly, moving to her side again.

“Yeah, Chlo, I know I’m kinda antisocial and like… I tolerate his friendship. I _like_ yours. Why would you think I was with him?,” Beca softens her tone, too, not interested in staying mad just for the sake of a grudge when it’s Chloe.

“I dunno, you mention him a bit… Compared to anyone else, anyway, it just seemed like there was something,” she shrugs, a little embarrassed.

“I only ever complain about him. He always gets annoyed at me because I won’t shut up about how great you are though, you can ask him,” Beca explains, cautiously, wondering if Chloe will catch on to what she’s saying. She’s not good at being obvious. She’s not good at feelings. She moves another two steps closer, though, now within arms’ reach.

“There’s no one you like, then? Really? You just talk about people because they’re… friends?” Chloe’s question strikes Beca as a little strange, so she shrugs.

“I never said talking about someone all the time doesn’t mean I have a thing for them…”

“Wait,” Chloe starts, and Beca thinks she’s caught on, before Chloe quickly turns away and faces Aubrey. “Aubrey, is that why you keep talking about Stacie? And why she said that before? You two?”

Beca can’t help but bring a hand up to her forehead in exasperation as Chloe gestures wildly between a wildly embarrassed Aubrey and winking Stacie, the rest of the team moving their own focus quickly between Beca and the Aubrey/Stacie thing which, admittedly, is kind of worth staring at. Beca was trying to have a moment, though, dammit.

“Chlo,” Beca says, simply, softly, immediately finding her attention on her again. “Interrogate Aubrey all you want now, I won’t deny you that… But can we talk later?”

“Let’s just… skip today. No practice today. All of you get out of here,” Aubrey calls out, before Chloe can respond, evidently not wanting to try and bring order back to the mess that has become this rehearsal.

“Can we talk now, then, Beca?” Chloe asks, and reluctantly, Beca nods, suddenly feeling her innate desire to run from anything resembling risky disclosure of feelings reappearing.

They walk out together, as always, in the direction of the diner, but Beca grabs Chloe’s hand and pulls her to a stop in front of her dorm.

“Do you want to just come up? More privacy? The roommate’s away this week.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Chloe sits on Beca’s bed when they enter the room, Beca staying standing, pacing across the room in front of Chloe as she tries to build her confidence enough to start speaking.

“I thought you were with him because I was kinda… jealous,” Chloe beats her to it, her admission causing Beca to pause her pacing and turn to face her.

“Just to clarify… Jealous of the friendship? Or of thinking it was more?”

“The second one…”

“If anyone should be jealous, Chlo, it’s him. Because he kinda had a thing for me, but I told him to quit trying super early… and I have a thing for you. Not him. You.”

With the speed that Chloe jumps up and pulls their lips together, Beca guesses she understood her this time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how did I manage to turn 100% of the main characters into terrible people


	3. Drunk Texting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Better late and not at all proofread than never, right? (It's still the 25th in Hawaii!)  
> Somehow I wrote something prompted by "drunk texting" without including any alcohol consumption?

The Bellas all living in one house was not like a perpetual sleepover, but occasionally they constructed one. Chloe was usually the instigator, and it usually happened if someone had seemed particularly stressed or particularly absent from the house. This time, she was clearly the instigator, because her worry was about Beca.

Her co-captain was certainly more sociable than she had been in the past – the mere fact that she’d agreed to live in a house with the rest of the Bellas in her second year of college was proof enough of that – but sometimes she still pulled back, and for the last week, she had more than she had in a long time. The others thought she might’ve been busy with classes or Jesse, but Chloe knew otherwise. For one, Becca and Jesse had ended months ago – Beca hadn’t made a big deal of it because it wasn’t a big deal to her, although Chloe was a little surprised the others didn’t work it out via Jesse somehow –, but Beca had also appeared in Chloe’s room five days ago to talk to her.

“What’s up, Becs?” Chloe asked, having walked in after a late-afternoon class assuming Flo, studying in the living room, was the only other Bella home until she stepped into her own room.

“Uh, stuff,” Beca answered, with a long sigh as she fell backwards and lay on Chloe’s bed.

“Stuff you want to share or stuff you just want to lie on my bed and think about?” Chloe questioned, continuing to empty a few things out of her backpack and put them in their places.

“Dad’s being weird about me breaking up with Jesse… like I literally don’t give a shit why does my Dad care?”

“Is he saying things?” Chloe responded, sympathetically, as she finished tidying her desk and moved to sit beside Beca on her bed.

“He’s kinda hinting that he thinks I broke up with Jesse because I like girls and he’s not cool with it,” Beca’s response is matter-of-fact, and frustrated.

“Ugh, that’s shitty of him,” Chloe empathised, choosing not to push Beca on the liking girls thing. It’s not like she’d exactly mentioned to Beca that she was into girls.

“I think I need… god this is uncharacteristic of me,” Beca cut herself off, rolling her eyes as she turned to look at Chloe. “I think I need a proper Bellas girls night. No drinking though.”

“One compulsory Bellas sleepover coming up, then,” Chloe had smiled, standing up and wandering over her laptop to immediately message everyone.

“We all live together! It’s not a sleepover!” Beca had grumbled, Chloe choosing to ignore her.

So, five days later, everyone managed to cancel anything they had on after 6pm for the night, only Chloe and Beca explicitly knowing why it had been called.

First up, of course, was making pizzas – ordering just wasn’t practical with so many of them and literally no one agreeing on toppings – and Beca jumped up to volunteer to cut up all the ingredients for everyone. She found cooking kind of distracting from anything going on in her head, and when all the Bellas were crowded around the kitchen pulling things out of the fridge and trays out of the cupboard, arguing over how much sauce should go on each pizza base, it just felt kind of nice. Supportive. Homely.

There were enough of them and enough pizzas that there was no break between making and eating – the first pizza left the oven well before the last one was made, and as much as the reason they made their own was to get toppings everyone liked, everything ended up being communal because they were all hungry and Beca was fiercely protective of the yet-to-be-used toppings, growling at anyone who attempted to steal something to eat.

(Except Chloe, of course – because she only stole pineapple, and Beca was firmly of the belief that less pineapple on any pizza in existence was good for the world. Also, she let Chloe get away with everything.)

They rather quickly migrated from the kitchen to the living room, someone throwing a random movie on the TV in the background as the girls all started chatting, catching up in a way that they didn’t always get a chance to with their busy schedules. Amy wasn’t one for sharing, mostly sitting in the centre of the room and throwing around jokes in response to everyone else, but the others shared.

Flo made them promise to keep quiet about it, and explained a new refugee action program she was getting involved in with one of the political groups on campus. Ashley, or maybe Jessica or maybe both, gushed about how great one of their lecturers was because he kept bringing his puppy to class because it was too young to stay home alone. Stacie discussed a few of her latest boy-toy adventures, although shrugging most of them off as “forgettable”, before Chloe was prompted to give them all an update on how Aubrey was going with her business retreat post-graduation.

Beca sat happily, mostly quietly, listening to her friends talk and ask about each other’s lives, happy that they didn’t push her (or, frankly, Amy, because that always got too strange for her) too much to talk if she didn’t want to. Granted, part of her felt a little guilty about how much she’d held back lately, which is why, when CR carefully asked if much was up with her, she didn’t entirely shrug it off.

“Uhh, not heaps. Apparently none of you guys have realised I broke up with Jesse a few months ago, so that’s a thing… Like, I broke up with him, I wanted to, it was kind of nothing,” she shrugs off the loud reactions and watches as everyone’s faces quickly fall back to acceptance.

“Yeah, actually, makes sense,” Amy answers, “especially since you’re gay and all.”

“Um… what?” Beca answers, raising an eyebrow, the rest of the girls seeming to side with her and laugh of Amy’s comment enough that Beca can move on and talk about something a little less dicey. Like the fact that Luke is _finally_ letting her in the booth at the campus radio station on a regular basis.

At some point, Flo and Jess disappear out of the room without a word and return – gradually – with what seems like every pillow and blanket in the house. Beca really wants to roll her eyes, it’d be more on-brand, but it’s kind of cold and the atmosphere in here is kind of warm and it adds to it, so she lets Chloe throw a giant pillow that she thinks belongs to Stacie behind her and, when her co-captain asks if she wants to share the blanket she’s thrown over herself, she accepts, shifting closer to get under it.

Their willing story-sharing quickly becomes a game of truth or dare, largely at Amy’s insistence, of course. They’re all comfortable and sober, though, so it’s a lot more truth than dare. No one wants to get up and do something stupid.

Part of Beca wonders if Chloe clued the others up that she was feeling kinda shitty this week, given the questions she gets thrown are insanely boring and easy – “why don’t you wear nail polish?” “because it doesn’t go with my look in the slightest, Stacie, you’re the fashion girl here you should know that!” – but she also knows Chloe wouldn’t betray her trust that their semi-regular chats in Chloe’s room stay private.

“Beca! Truth or dare?” Ashley asks, grinning, and Beca shrugs.

“Has literally anyone said dare? Truth.”

“Who’d be the absolute worst person in your phone contacts that you could drunk text something?” Ashley’s question is odd, to Beca, and she’s not quite sure how to answer it, so she takes a moment to think.

“I mean, any of my like… family? That’d just be awkward… I deleted Jesse’s number and all I’d drunk text him is that he sucks…” she answers, slowly thinking aloud. “Actually, you know what?” her voice brightens, sounding more certain, as she gestures to her left, “Chloe. Definitely Chloe.”

Beca chooses to ignore the confused looks from the others, and pretends not to see the hurt look on her best friend’s face, as she asks something of Cynthia-Rose to move the game along.

Chloe doesn’t know what to think of Beca’s answer. She thought they told each other everything, and she thought that Beca knew she’d never share anything she was told in secrecy, so she has no idea why Beca would be scared to reveal anything to her, even if she was drunk. Does Beca not trust her? Is Beca hiding things from her? Is their increasing closeness not as increasing as she’d imagined?

She doesn’t want to ruin her night by worrying, though, so Chloe pushes the thoughts out of her mind, coming up with a few loose justifications instead. There’s a few things she hasn’t told Beca. Beca can be a messy drunk, and maybe she just doesn’t want to worry Chloe or annoy her (although Chloe could _never_ be annoyed by her and she thinks she’s made that pretty clear before). Everything is fine.

She stews over it for a few days after, though, her head swimming with questions because it was just such a _confusing_ answer and it was about her and she thought, even if Beca sometimes doesn’t reveal everything about things with her family or her grades or things like that (she has no idea how Beca is doing academically, just that it’s well enough that she meets the pass-average requirement to stay in the Bellas), she at least knew where they stood in regards to each other. Right?

“Oh, hey Beca,” Chloe greets her captain as she walks into her room the next week, seeing Beca already laying across her bed.

“Hey Chlo,” Beca answers, shifting and sitting up to face the redhead, “did I do something wrong? You’re being kind of weird. You haven’t hugged me since the sleepover.”

“Ha! You called it a sleepover!” Chloe points out, enthusiastically, choosing not to answer the question.

“Because everyone else does. Still wrong. Seriously, though, dude, what’s up?”

Chloe sighs, slowly unpacking her bag before she takes a seat on the bed beside Beca.

“Why did you say I’d be the worst person to drunk text?” Chloe asks, looking down at the floor, not wanting to see Beca’s reaction.

“Uh… shit. You weren’t meant to pick up on that,” Beca’s initial answer doesn’t give Chloe any hope that this isn’t about her thinking their relationship was better than it was. “Um, so I didn’t want to tell you this… and I think if I got drunk I would, which is why I said that… and it’s kind of weird and it might freak you out.”

“I’ve got an insanely high bar for things you say freaking me out, Becs.”

“This might even beat that… You know what I said about my Dad?”

“How he was being all shitty about why you broke up with Jesse?” Chloe asks, wondering how on earth this could have anything to do with her.

“Yeah… he was kind of right. I broke up with Jesse because I’ve kinda realised I’m not really into guys… and I am into girls…” Beca trails off, cautiously, and Chloe quickly looks up.

“Becs! You don’t have to worry about telling me that at all, that’s not weird at all! I’m totally in support of you no matter what,” Chloe responds, enthusiastically, “and I’m bi, so I’m especially chill about all this stuff.”

“Oh, I knew you would be, although… I did not know you’re bi. That part’s not what I thought’d freak you out, although maybe it won’t freak you out in the way I thought it would…” Beca’s response is full of hesitance, and Chloe tries to turn her voice as comforting as possible in response.

“Just tell me if you’d like to, Beca, I promise I won’t freak out.”

“I realised I like girls because I like you… that way,” Beca says, the end of her sentence mumbled as she brings her hands up to cover her face.

Chloe’s brain stutters, taking a moment to process what she just heard. Beca… likes her? Beca? Beca actually just said that, and she’s not dreaming?

Beca goes to apologise, snapping Chloe out of her daze.

“Don’t apologise, Beca. And you know, if you like me, then would you like to go on a date with me? This Friday?” Chloe asks, softly, watching as Beca’s small smile grows, evidently against her will, as she bites her lip to try and control it.

“Yeah… that’d be nice,” Beca answers, “is this you saying…”

“Yeah. I like you too. Have since I met you,” Chloe replies, shifting her hand delicately across the covers until it bumps into where Beca’s is resting, causing her to look up and meet Chloe’s eyes, blushing heavily.

“This way was better than drunk texting.”


	4. Why?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set three years after the end of PP3, but covers from end of PP3 onwards.
> 
> I hadn't pre-written this lot of fics and expected I would have time to but unexpectedly have had to temp go back to university town from hometown for half the week so it's been a messy week. And then this fic got really long when I started writing it (and could have easily kept going but it's almost 5,000 words already). No promises on when day 5-7 will be around.
> 
> UPDATE: Extended version of this chapter now available, titled 'Wish I Never Left'!

It’s been three years since Beca talked to Chloe.

The USO tour that was supposed to bring all the Bellas together for one last chance to sing as a group had, technically, been good for Beca. She’d just quit her job because dear _god_ she did not want to be associated with the sexist trash that was coming out of the artists at the place she was working, and it gave her a bit over a month to hang out with her closest friends. And, at the end, she was suddenly signed to a legitimate label with an impressive reputation.

She tried to convince them to let her stay based in New York, so she could stay with her roommates – well, Amy was leaving anyway, but Chloe – but she was a new signing and had no power over her contract. It was a contract that forced her to record and work in LA, and she so badly wanted to say no. She wasn’t ready to move out into the world and have to do it entirely by herself, but she would’ve been stupid to say no and she’d be lying if she said the six-digit number at the end of the expected earnings section wasn’t the major factor in her decision.

So, Beca had moved to LA. By herself. Every other Bella was on the east coast (until Stacie had moved to California two years after Beca did), and Chloe? Well, she wasn’t really sure where Chloe was. She knew her once best friend had got into vet school, but she forgot to ask which vet school, and two weeks after moving out of their pokey studio apartment – while Chloe was still there – Beca had made somewhat of a drastic decision and cut all contact with Chloe.

At her first meeting with the record label, Beca had been asked if she wrote songs at all, or she wanted to just use songs that other people wrote, and if so, what they should be like.

“Uh I… write sometimes? I’m not sure if it’s any good, I’ve only ever shown things I’ve produced, not written, to anyone in the industry,” she had responded, attempting to answer professionally after her original hesitation.

In response, she’d been asked to prepare an example of something she’d written in a weeks’ time for another meeting, and they’d come prepared with samples of songs other people had written that they thought would suit her. They were really rushing this album process.

Beca scrolled through, and scrapped, every song draft on her laptop hard drive. It was much easier – indeed, she had no trouble at all – to write a new song. There were a lot of thoughts spiralling around her mind in the aftermath of the USO tour and her sudden and unexpected departure from the comfortable habits she’d fallen into living with Amy and Chloe, and they flowed clearly out onto the page as she wrote away.

The problem was that it meant those thoughts were no longer contained in Beca’s mind for only her viewing. They were out in the open, where someone else could see them. Someone else that they may or may not be about, in the case of Chloe.

Chloe messaged Beca every second day asking how things were going in LA and complaining about how empty their apartment felt with just her and Amy in it – as if that tiny apartment could ever feel empty – and Beca enthusiastically responded the first few times, until suddenly she realised that this song writing thing was a part she should probably hide from Chloe. So, she didn’t say she was writing songs – just that she was waiting on them to give her songs. She assumed the label would say hers sucked and she should go with theirs instead, and then she could go back to telling Chloe everything and pretend the whole “writing more than one song about how in love with her best friend she was” thing had never happened.

Her second meeting came around, and she handed over printed copies of lyrics and approximate melodies she’d figured for two of the songs she’d written when her manager – thankfully, not Theo, after she’d threatened to formally accuse him of sexual harassment if he made a move on her again (because that’s what it was) – and the two producers sitting alongside him asked. She sat in awkward silence, watching as they glanced over them.

“These are quite good! With not too much polishing up you could definitely have a go at recording these to test out if they might feature on an album or EP release,” one of the producers had enthused after five minutes, and Beca’s heart sank.

That night, Beca had a panic attack. She used to have them more than she had in recent years – although she’d screamed at Amy about her job issues in the middle of one not long before the USO tour – but she’d kind of expected it to happen, given as soon as she stepped out of the meeting at 4:30pm her thoughts had started to spiral.

If she recorded one of those songs about Chloe, they could be released. And if they were released, there was absolutely no way that Chloe wouldn’t realise they were about her because the lyrics weren’t exactly coy.

She started to pace rhythmically back and forth across her apartment as soon as she stepped in the door, her belongings thrown straight on the bed. She hoped the pacing rhythm would enforce a similar order in her mind, but they just fuelled the racing spiral instead.

If Chloe heard one of those songs and realised they were about her – which she _certainly would_ – it would be the end of their friendship. Chloe wouldn’t be rude or freak out about it, Beca knew that wasn’t in her nature, but she’d be kind and let Beca down gently and tell her she only thought of her as a friend. And that would destroy her even more than if Chloe freaked out at her.

Beca couldn’t stop pacing, now, and she couldn’t stop thinking, and she’d lost control of the speed of her breathing-

Beca wouldn’t survive Chloe softly destroying her like that. She couldn’t survive being in contact with her, or any of the Bellas, or anyone associated with that period in her life, and that was almost everyone in her life. She couldn’t live without any social contact forever and she couldn’t live in eternal misery over her best friend, and as much as she hated it, she was doing just fine holding onto her feelings for Chloe and not letting Chloe anywhere near them.

There was no way Chloe wouldn’t find out, though. She’d listen to anything Beca released. She’d listen to the songs, and then she’d figure it out. She’d let Beca down, and Beca would be destroyed. What part of that chain could she break? She couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t be released because she didn’t have that control. She couldn’t stop Chloe listening to it. She couldn’t stop her figuring it out. She couldn’t change how Chloe would respond. She couldn’t do anything-

Beca paused, suddenly, staring at her laptop bag on her bed. Could she prevent Chloe from responding?

She ripped open the zip of the bag with such force that the tab snapped, but she hardly noticed. She slammed the laptop out onto the bed so quickly it would’ve broken on any other surface. The hinges stopped the screen that she threw back, the laptop falling backwards for half a second from the force before Beca grabbed the front of the keyboard to right it, furiously tapping the internet browser.

Facebook was her homepage. She had a message from Chloe. She didn’t read it. She tried not to look at Chloe’s profile – her profile picture of the two of them in France just four weeks ago – as she hit unfriend, and block. She closed Facebook.

Twitter was next, and easier, because Chloe’s profile was relatively empty. She rarely used Twitter. Beca blocked her anyway.

She pulled up google, quickly searching “ _how to block a phone number iphone_ ”. Clicking the first link, she reached for her phone, pulling open Instagram while it loaded. Block. Glancing up at the screen, it still hadn’t loaded. She opened WhatsApp. Blocked.

The tutorial loaded, and Beca glanced through it, performing the steps as she read them, not taking any notice that iMessage told her Chloe was currently typing in their conversation. Blocked.

Beca didn’t know how much she was shaking or how much her heart was racing until she placed her phone back down on the bed and felt her body start to calm down.

She had taken a shower to continue the calming process, digging out a Bluetooth speaker to bring into the bathroom with her so she could sing along to something angry and drown out any thoughts that wanted to start spiralling again.

After her shower, Beca found her phone alive with a handful of messages from other Bellas asking why Chloe was freaking out that she’d disappeared. She pulled open Facebook and made a group chat, typing out some lie about a personal disagreement and Beca deciding she needed space. She left the chat as soon as she said it, not waiting for a reaction, and then for good measure, ran through and blocked Aubrey on everything too.

She’s barely talked to any of the Bellas in three years, save for the occasional congratulations message as her career skyrocketed around her, Beca barely able to catch her breath as she watched it happen.

The first song she wrote about Chloe was her first single, and her manager had tried to hand over a phone call from Aubrey twelve hours after it was released, but she quickly clued in her whole team that she would be taking no messages from anyone named Aubrey or Chloe. It took a few days before the single gained wider attention – and a fair bit of promotional work from herself and the label – but when it did, she suddenly found everything change in an instant. Number one in America. Number one in Canada. Number one in ten countries. Number one in thirty countries-

Her album came a month later, and there was no delay before that one shot to number one too. Every song on that album was about Chloe, but Beca didn’t like to acknowledge that very often.

“You put so much emotion into so many of these songs, is there something in particular you’re drawing on?” she had been asked on many a talk show, hosts digging for gossip that’d boost their ratings up.

“There’s not really anything specific, I think these are just such an integral part of the human condition that I can draw into that… I wanted my songs to appeal to everyone-“ her answer was always the same rehearsed excuse.

Beca had celebrated her one-year anniversary of cutting contact with Chloe in Seoul, South Korea, at the start of the second leg of her world tour. She’d already covered North America, and now was on to Australasia, and then Europe, then South America and more in North America because all the first ones sold out too quickly. The problem, of course, was not where she was – it was that she remembered at all.

Beca knew her image as a public figure suffered at least a little bit because she was so withdrawn, but singing all these songs so often was draining. She was bad around people at the best of times, let alone when her mind was constantly spiralling with regret and “what ifs” and loneliness. She pulled back as much as she could, limiting her appearances to those only contractually required and keeping her (new) social media accounts purely professional.

During her North American tour, she had happened to be back in LA for awards season. Her manager claimed it wasn’t planned – she still didn’t believe him – and, reluctantly, she’d attended the shows. She got all dressed up (she didn’t _entirely_ hate that part because her stylist was fantastic) and she walked the red carpet alone and politely answered the dubiously appropriate outfit and relationship questions from the reporters.

She won a Billboard award she didn’t remember the category name of, a VMA, a GRAMMY. She had just enough alcohol at each show to enjoy the night and still be coherent for a thank-you speech – thanking her team, her fans, and without names, her “friends and family” – and the compulsory press afterwards.

She liked being on the road, because it kept her busy and it kept her mind off things. At least, it probably would have had all her music not been about the thing she was trying to forget. She took solace in a strange conversation she’d had with Pink backstage at the Billboard awards, where Pink – “call me Alecia” – had asked if the stuff about ‘no particular inspiration’ was bullshit, and Beca had reluctantly admitted that yeah, it was.

“If it’s any solace,” Alecia had started, with a reassuring smile, “I find that by the end of a touring cycle, I’ve usually worked through all the issues that got covered in that album.”

The two-year anniversary of Beca cutting contact with Chloe came not far from the end of her tour cycle, when Beca was settling back in to a quiet and reclusive life in a much larger LA apartment than she had been in before her album was released, and immediately disproved that theory. She still wasn’t over it.

Beca didn’t ask for time off, but she was given it. Six months that she had no idea what to do with. She took an online Spanish course and taught herself to cook a little more than the basics she already knew, because it felt like self-improvement, and it was a decent distraction.

For her second album, they allotted a full six months of production time, and she wondered why until she entered her first meeting with the now-familiar team she’d worked with last time after her break and was surprised to see one of the producers missing. They usually had the same number for each album, or so she’d been told.

“You get to help produce this time,” her manager had revealed, and Beca couldn’t help but genuinely smile. _This_ was what she wanted to do.

They took their time with the second album, no release date or singles set even five months into the project. It had been only two weeks ago when Beca had suddenly felt a wave of desire to do _something_ about Chloe wash over her. She wrote another song, because it was all she knew how to do, and immediately told her team that this would be the first single.

To her surprise, they didn’t fight. They helped her polish, record and produce the song in ten days, and convince the label to let her do a surprise drop and only promote it after it was released.

Beca hasn’t talked to Chloe for three years, and she’s about to release a song admitting that was a mistake. A song basically begging Chloe to tell her where they stand, even if it’s that Chloe hates her guts now.

Beca doesn’t have to do anything for the release. Someone else who has joint control over all her social media is handling the announcement at 6pm on a Sunday, a stupid time to release a song, but almost exactly three years since she had almost broken her old laptop in her haste to cut contact with Chloe.

In hindsight, she was bloody lucky she didn’t break anything, given she hadn’t been in the financial position to be able to replace that laptop with something good enough for her job until a year later when she’d finally seen some of the money her music was making.

She tries to occupy her mind with useless shit like that all evening, to not go online. She cooks a rather elaborate meal and convinces herself to clean the kitchen properly after she finishes eating it, although she has cleaners that do her apartment every two weeks anyway. It’s after nine by the time she finishes, which isn’t nearly late enough.

She has a shower, does a face mask, washes her hair, hoping anything will relax her enough to go to sleep.

She’s too agitated. She can’t do it.

At 9am the next morning, she walks in to the studio she’s been working at, head down and way more makeup than usual on to hide the rather obvious signs of her sleepless night. There’s a few paparazzi around as always but they aren’t too pushy.

“There’s someone waiting in your office for you,” the receptionist calls out as Beca walks through, and she nods and gives her a smile in acknowledgement. She gets the same message from her almost every morning and without fail it is always her manager. He’s punctual, if anything.

She’s confused when she runs into him in the hallway between the elevator and her office.

“Oh, hi Beca, song’s going great!” he enthuses, and Beca forces a smile – she is happy, just tired – and nods.

“That’s good, good. Do we want to keep working on promotional aspects for the album today?” she asks, hoping he says yes. Stupid arguments about colours are much more her speed today than anything serious.

“Um, we’ll see how things go, but sure,” he answers, and Beca shrugs, too tired to think any further of his demeanour.

Her head is down when she enters her office, fiddling with her keys, one having got tangled in a stupid keyring one of the producers had given her a while ago as it often does, not remembering there was someone in her office until she spies a pair of shoes ahead of her, causing her eyes to snap up.

“Beca-“ Chloe starts, and Beca immediately lets go of the door handle, letting it slam shut behind her as she takes a step to the side, crumpling into a heap on the couch beside the door, burying her face in her hands as she starts to shake, tears pooling against her cheeks where her hands are trapping them.

She lets out an audible sob when she feels the other side of the couch dip and notices the familiar scent of Chloe’s perfume waft over her.

She’s not quite sure how she responds when Chloe wraps an arm around her, because her brain shuts down and all logical thought disappears. Chloe is here. Chloe is in her office. Chloe is holding her.

“Why are you here?” Beca asks, five minutes later, between sobs. She still can’t bring herself to look up at Chloe again, but she can feel her crying against her shoulder.

“Because you asked me to be, and I will go anywhere for you,” Chloe answers, her voice choked.

“I only released that song fifteen hours ago.”

“Stacie had contact details for the label,” Chloe responds, as an explanation.

“Where do you even live?”

“Florida.”

“How are you here?” Beca asks, her mind still stuttering, struggling to process everything that’s happening.

“It was surprisingly easy to get to your manager, and I asked him if he could at least pass on a message for me or give me your current number or something… and he said he knew who I was and that he could give me your address, if I wanted it. That felt like too much. I asked him if you’d be working today and he said yes so I booked a flight and… here I am.”

“Why are you here?” Beca repeats her earlier question, softer, her crying starting to calm down as she finally looks up and, as Chloe pulls back slightly, meets her eyes.

“Why did you cut contact with me, Beca?” Chloe questions in return. Beca sighs, trying to find the words to explain.

“In that first week they asked me to write songs… and I did, and they were all about you, and when they said they were good I freaked out because if they were going to be released – and they were – you’d know they were about you and you’d have to tell me you’d only ever like me as a friend and I didn’t think I could take that. I panicked. It was the only way I knew how to deal with it.”

“I tried to convince myself they weren’t about me. That someone else wrote them and it was all just a coincidence but I… knew it was you. And I wanted to contact you, because I needed to tell you how much I love you, but I couldn’t. And I tried to be mad at you, but I couldn’t…” Chloe trails off, and Beca stares at her, not believing she just heard what she did. Thankfully, Chloe repeats it, “I’m in love with you, Beca. I always have been. If you still want me- if you still want something between us, I’m here so that could happen. And I’m not leaving. I’ll move to California today.”

“What about vet school?” Beca asks, not able to process anything else.

“I overloaded my courses to occupy my time and stop thinking about you. I have one course left and I can finish it online.”

“You’re moving to California? For me?”

“Yes, Beca.”

“I love you so much,” Beca rushes out, her mind finally catching up as she throws herself against Chloe, arms wrapping tightly around her, tears forming around her eyes again but this time in happiness. “I love you so much and I’m so happy you’re here and I never want to be away from you again.”

“Your people told me you can have today off. Can we go back to your place and talk? We have three years of catching up to do and I want to hear everything,” Chloe’s response is soft and affectionate and Beca feels like she is melting into a pile of happiness.

“Yeah… I should clean up my face,” Beca reluctantly pulls back from her, gesturing to the lines of makeup that have run down her cheeks, scowling when Chloe giggles. “I still don’t usually wear this much, but I didn’t sleep last night.”

It doesn’t surprise Beca when Chloe stands up, walks over to her bag lying beside Beca’s desk and pulls out a pack of makeup remover wipes, quickly moving back over to sit beside Beca. It also doesn’t surprise her when Chloe cups one hand under Beca’s chin and starts tidying her makeup for her.

“Wait,” Beca says, and Chloe recoils quickly, clearly worried she crossed a line. “No, not that…” Beca trails off, before mumbling, “it’s just that your hands on my face is making me cry happy tears again.”

Chloe visibly relaxes, smiling softly as she hands the makeup wipe over to Beca and stands up again, walking over and picking up her bag.

“Did you like… bring a suitcase or something?” Beca asks, awkwardly, as she pulls out her phone to use as a mirror as she finishes at least kind of wiping the mascara from around her eyes. She really should use waterproof like… all the time.

“Nope. I figured if it didn’t go well I’d fly home again, and if it did I’ll just steal some of your stuff.”

“Oh you haven’t changed then,” Beca grins, Chloe just laughing and shaking her head as she watches Beca scrunch up the makeup wipe and throw it into a bin beside the couch, standing up and shoving her phone back in her pocket. “Come on, let’s go to my place.”

Beca takes Chloe’s hand as she pushes open the door of her office and they both walk out into the hallway, and she doesn’t let go. Not when they stop by her manager’s office so Beca can say she’s taking the day off – she chooses to ignore the sly grin he gives in response -, not when they sneak out a side door to Beca’s car. Briefly, to get in the car, but Beca quickly joins their hands again after she’s on the road, silently thanking her past self for sticking with an automatic so she doesn’t need to change gears.

To Beca’s surprise, Chloe doesn’t comment on the car, and when they arrive at her apartment she doesn’t comment on the presence of security guards around the car park entrance, or the fact that the elevator opens directly into what is evidently a large penthouse apartment. Beca sees Chloe glance at the awards shelf off to the side of the entry – as out of the way as Beca could justify putting it without hiding them – but she doesn’t comment.

“Why aren’t you saying anything about all the… weird fancy shit?” Beca asks, cautiously, after they’ve stepped into her open-plan living area.

“I’m going to need like, half an hour to properly tell you how proud of you I am for the awards and evidently earning enough money for all of this but I… you’re still Beca. I know that car cost a shitton, but it’s not the slightest bit externally flashy and it’s so you. I feel bad for commenting on your apartment, though, because of what I want to say…” she trails off.

“Just say it,” Beca answers, softly, knowing what it will be, because she feels it too.

“It’s beautiful, but it’s… empty. It doesn’t look like you live here.”

“I don’t know what to do with this much space when it’s just me. I don’t exactly have many… friends. Stacie’s been here, she was kind of bugging me to hang out when she moved to San Francisco and she’s fun so I couldn’t say no. But I’m alone a lot, and I’ve just kind of made my bedroom look like mine and left everything else as… whatever. I use the kitchen a bit though.”

“You know who you’re reminding me of?” Chloe asks, rhetorically, wandering further into the apartment and across to the kitchen. “Damn, I’d love to cook here.”

“It’s good. I taught myself to cook properly when I had six months off earlier this year.”

“You better cook something amazing for me sometime soon, then.”

“I definitely will. Who am I reminding you of?”

“Freshman Beca.”

Beca watches Chloe turn back to face her, and she nods, sighing.

“I am a bit, yeah, but… I know I shouldn’t be, this time. And I’m about to do something that will probably surprise you and that freshman Beca certainly wouldn’t do…”

Chloe raises an eyebrow, indicating for Beca to continue.

“I am extremely tired, I am overwhelmed, and I want nothing more than to lie down with you and talk about everything like we used to in New York. Come on,” Beca requests, softly, holding out a hand that Chloe quickly takes, allowing herself to be lead into Beca’s bedroom, immediately noticing that it is way more Beca than the rest of the house.

“Are you going to fall asleep on me?” Chloe asks, smiling lightly as Beca falls down on the bed with a long, tired sigh.

“No, I’m going to cuddle you and make you tell me about vet school.”

“Really? Not telling me about your crazy life, just my boring vet school?” Chloe asks, a teasing lilt to her voice as she takes off her shoes and settles down on the bed, lying on her side and facing Beca. “How do you still have a terrible mattress?”

“We can do both, if you’d like, but my life is actually very boring and repetitive. And I can’t answer that without sound pathetic,” Beca’s response is light, but there’s a tone under it that makes Chloe push closer.

“Tell me?” she whispers, as Beca curls against her.

“You were always the one that wanted a softer mattress for our crappy fold-out bed, and I couldn’t bear to get one without you being involved somehow. I still feel like you haven’t realised how obsessively in love with you I am and when you do you’ll get creeped out and leave…” Beca trails off.

“Beca, did you not hear me say I am uprooting my life and moving across the country for you with absolutely no planning or preparation? That I’ve been in love with you forever? I really do mean forever. I mean since I’ve met you. I’ve been in love with you for ten years. I’m still in love with you. I’ll always be in love with you…” Chloe trails off, pulling Beca closer to her.

“Move in with me. I know it’s too soon. I know I haven’t even asked you to be my girlfriend yet, but… move in with me, and we’ll buy a proper mattress, and we can make this apartment our home,” Beca’s voice is determined, but Chloe can feel her shaking slightly with nerves.

“Okay,” Chloe answers, simply, before moving her arm as if indicating for Beca to turn to face her. “And I want you to be my girlfriend. Yeah, we have a lot of catching up to do. But we’re us. We don’t need to wait.”

“Okay,” Beca answers much the same, smiling widely as Chloe tentatively shifts her face closer. When Chloe’s nose brushes against Beca’s, her face only a breath away, Beca quickly bites her lip to control her smile before she closes the remaining space between them and presses her lips against Chloe’s for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Want more? See 'Wish I Never Left', where I've finally continued on this story. Much fluff.


	5. Road Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two days within a few hours of each other! And technically this one is only 25 hours and 17 minutes late if I happened to live in Hawaii. I don't, it's after 9pm Sunday here, but still.
> 
> Set between PP2 and PP3, let's pretend Emily started a year earlier.

The Bellas had managed to get into the ICCA Nationals once again for the third year in a row, having won the previous two competitions. As their captain – along with Chloe, of course – Beca was excited. As someone who absolutely detested travelling in the mini bus with her friends for the arduous _fourteen hour_ trip from Atlanta to New York, where the nationals were being hosted, she was less so. She would’ve pushed for them to fly instead if she wasn’t acutely aware that, even despite their success last year and regained prominent position among the Barden clubs circle, they did not have the funds to do that.

She packed two portable chargers for her phone just in case she needed the battery life if she couldn’t sleep, and her in-ear headphones for in the bus because she didn’t trust whoever she ended up sitting next to not to bump her and potentially damage her good ones that were safely enclosed in a protective case alongside her laptop in her overnight bag.

Amy elected to drive the first leg of the trip, and the front seats were saved for her fellow drivers: CR, Jessica and Ashley. The other girls filed into seats as they entered the vehicle, Beca and Chloe last on because they had to make sure everyone and everything that was meant to be there was. Beca let out an internal groan when she realised that there was only one seat left, knowing Chloe would choose to sit beside her over any of the other Bellas who were sitting by themselves.

She was right, of course, although Beca was pleasantly surprised that Chloe didn’t protest when she quickly threw on her headphones and turned up her music to drown out the chatter between the others. Beca could tell that Chloe herself wasn’t engaging, either, which was a little odd for her, although she did have a tendency to try and be quieter in the lead-up to their competitions. She claimed, to the group at large, that it was to protect her voice. She quietly admitted to Beca it was because it calmed her, since she still got a tiny bit nervous about competitions. Beca pretended she didn’t feel privileged to have Chloe tell her things she didn’t tell anyone else.

Beca felt Chloe mutter a sharp “shit,” under her breath more than she heard it, forty-five minutes into their journey, instinctively pulling out her left earphone and turning to her questioningly.

“I forgot a pair of earphones for in the bus…” Chloe mutters, in explanation, and Beca gives her a sympathetic smile.

“Not keen for talking with everyone this time?” Beca asked, her voice low to gain some kind of privacy despite the close and closed-in space of the mini bus. Everyone else seemed to be otherwise occupied, anyway.

“Not really,” Chloe sighed, a slightly darker tone to her voice than Beca was used to.

A few seconds later, Beca made up her mind, pulling her right earphone out and shifting it to her left ear, offering the left earphone to Chloe to put in her right. Chloe look surprised for a moment, before gratefully taking the earphone and shifting closer to Beca so she could comfortably put it in her own ear, their shoulders pressed together as they each listened to music in one ear and tried to block out the noise of the others.

They had left Barden late in the afternoon, and it was approaching night time when Amy pulled into a roadside stop to end her shift at the wheel. The girls piled off the bus, a few electing to pick up food for their in-transit dinner from the small convenience store at the stop while the others milled around and stretched their legs. Chloe could have pulled out her bag and grabbed her headphones, but she consciously decided not to. Maybe she’d sleep the rest of the way, anyway. She knew Beca wouldn’t – she couldn’t sleep in a moving vehicle – so it’s not like she needed to stay awake to keep an eye on everyone or anything. They weren’t exactly the most responsible of people when they were all together, but Beca knew how to be sensible.

Beca and Chloe resumed their position beside each other, headphones shared between them and Chloe now leaning even more heavily against Beca’s shoulder. Fat Amy stayed awake to make sure CR stayed alert, but the others started to drift off to sleep not long after they started moving again. Beca, as Chloe had predicted, didn’t make any move towards sleep, her back remaining straight as she leaned back against her seat and stared straight ahead, mind trying to get lost in the music playing in her left ear.

Chloe watched her for a while, before testing the waters as she shifted to lean her head against Beca’s shoulder, as if using her as a pillow. To her surprise, Beca didn’t flinch, seeming to glance around the bus before she shifting to give Chloe a better angle to lean against her and moved her own arm to rest around Chloe’s shoulders. It wasn’t much later that Chloe dozed off, and Beca didn’t dare move a muscle until Chloe woke of her own accord as the sun rose eight hours later.

Cynthia-Rose had done four hours driving the bus, only Beca and the drivers awake when she pulled over to swap with Ashley somewhere around 2am. After that stop, only Ashley, Jessica and Beca had remained awake as the others all slept, neither of the others choosing to comment on the position that Beca and Chloe were in. Even as everyone began to wake up nearing their final driver change to Jessica, who was most confident to take them into New York and to the hotel-apartment they were renting for a few nights for the competition, no one seemed to comment on their position.

“Sorry I went to sleep on you,” Chloe mumbles to Beca, quietly, the first sign that she’s awake not long after the final driver change.

“All good,” Beca replies, softly, brushing off her apology. Chloe straightens up slightly as she wakes up, but she doesn’t move any further away, and Beca’s arm remains around her.

Chloe and Beca both snap into captain mode when they finally reach the place they’re staying – just near the performing arts centre where the competition will be held, so they are certainly not the only acapella group staying here – and walk up to the reception desk.

They had managed to book two interconnection three-bedroom apartments for the ten of them to share and they were able to check in early as they’d requested, Beca and Chloe collecting all the keys and quickly guiding everyone towards the elevators.

“Okay, so, I’m thinking…” Chloe started, as the elevator started to move up towards the fifteenth floor. “Ashley and Jess, Amy, Stacie, Emily in the first room? And then that’d leave me, Beca, Flo, Lily and CR in the second. Everyone okay with that?”

No one protests, although when they disembark the elevator and spread out slightly, Beca pulls Chloe back.

“Don’t we usually try and go different room?” she asks, a little confused.

“Yeah, but… Jess and Ashley are smart. And just… just let me sleep with you,” Chloe replies, her voice low, and Beca’s mind immediately goes somewhere it shouldn’t. She chooses to ignore that, however, instead simply nodding and following Chloe and the others to the rooms.

They fill their day with preparations for the competition for the following day, Beca and Chloe enforcing a strict “dear god please sleep properly we have a competition tomorrow night” policy and ensuring everyone, including themselves, are back in the hotel and in bed before 10pm. Beca certainly doesn’t mind, given she’s been awake for two days straight, although when she falls into the double bed in the room she’s sharing with Chloe she doesn’t immediately fall asleep as she had predicted. Instead, she lays back and watches as her best friend moves around the room getting ready for bed herself, setting jewellery in the right place and changing from the clothes she had worn out to dinner into pyjamas.

Beca tries not to feel weird, watching Chloe change, because she’s seen her change before, and she can convince herself that there’s no real difference in nuance between seeing and watching. Either way, Chloe doesn’t seem to mind when she turns back to the bed to see Beca’s eyes on her, simply giving her a soft smile before turning off the light and crawling under the covers herself, lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling.

“We’re both going to graduate next year,” Chloe murmurs into the dark a few moments later.

“You’re not graduating this year?” Beca asks, carefully.

“No. I’m graduating when you do,” she answers, and Beca feels her heart grow. She suspected it, but it’s the first time that Chloe has admitted out loud that she was intentionally failing courses to stick around with the Bellas. To stick around with Beca.

“And after we graduate?” Beca poses another question, listening as Chloe sighs, her heartrate increasing when she feels Chloe shift closer and then reach out a hand to find yours.

“By then, hopefully we’ll have another reason to do whatever we do together.”


	6. Good Luck Charm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this is literally months late, it's short and kind of weird and different, but I wanted to actually finish this "week" because I never abandon fic I just find a way to end it. I have a mild excuse for the delay (my life went insane I almost temp moved to another country and then it fell apart and I'm back)
> 
> Line dividers for different parts of the story, DIY dot dividers for time jumps within parts.
> 
> Bechloe Week 2018 Day 6 prompt: Good Luck Charm  
> (PP3 didn't happen)

“You have to admit, Chloe, that she’s not exactly been good for you before now,” Aubrey muses, “I mean, the disasters in first year competitions, your nodes, things ending with Tom, going a couple of years without dating, having to get an internship in New York because you couldn’t get into education in Atlanta…”

* * *

The Bellas had a problem. There were two of them, not ten-or-more. Just Aubrey and Chloe. Somehow, they had to try and recruit a whole heap of amazing singing, dancing, coordinated girls to keep the longest-running Barden club still, well, running. It wasn’t exactly going fantastically: someone claiming to be a mermaid, a few quiet people, someone who just kind of gestured at her boobs and grabbed a flyer.

“Ooh, what about her?” Chloe asks, pointing towards a girl dressed largely in black wandering around. She gestures to her, and the girl actually walks over to them. Score.

...............

Auditions had been… interesting. Maybe there was potential in some of those who tried out, maybe there wasn’t, but either way this whole thing was going to take way more work than Chloe really wanted in her senior year. No one was making this easy for them.

Beca’s head poked from around the curtain, late and unprepared, awkward and hesitant, but they needed potential. Chloe handed over the yellow cup, ignoring Aubrey’s confused glance. Suddenly, there was at least one easy entrant into the Bellas.

...............

They weren’t ready for a competition in the slightest. Chloe was scared that Aubrey would stress-vomit again, and scared that they maybe should have warned the rest of the girls that she tended to do that. Aubrey’s good-luck speech didn’t exactly improve her nerves either, Chloe sighing and looking up at the ceiling to clear her mind.

When she looked back down, she met Beca’s eye, a half-hearted, encouraging smile appearing on her face. It helped.

...............

Nodes were the worst thing that Chloe could think of. She didn’t think she could live without singing, and Aubrey’s insistence that even if she got them removed and changed her singing voice she’d still be a useless singer for the future wasn’t exactly encouraging.

Beca looked at her in concern, though, asking her to hang out and grab food or a coffee or something the next day. It was nice.

Even when they weren’t really talking, Beca sent her a good luck text the day of her surgery.

...............

They got into Nationals. The finals. And, for once, Chloe felt like they had a chance of winning, because suddenly their choreo was interesting and energetic and outgoing, to suit the new sound they’d found for themselves. After Beca managed to rescue them mid-meltdown. Beca’s music.

...............

Chloe was usually honest with herself, so she didn’t try and hide from herself that she was starting to develop a pretty big crush on Beca. A crush that was the main reason she finally got herself out of the mess with Tom that had been dragging down her mood for months. Even if it might be an unrequited crush, it made her realise she deserved better.

...............

Beca was closed off and intimidating, and somehow, absolutely killing it at acquiring new people at the clubs fair, drawing people in to their stall, managing to use every flyer they’d printed and then jotting down details on people’s hands when they couldn’t get any more. Sure, some didn’t turn up to auditions, and some did and really shouldn’t have, but they had enough that choosing was hard because there were too many _good_ people, and Chloe couldn’t remember that happening for a very long time.

...............

Beca’s mixes were, as far as Chloe was concerned, taking the collegiate acapella world by storm. Others tried to copy them, but Beca kept stepping up. They won every competition in Beca’s second year. They won every competition in her third year, and started to get enough legitimate promotional deals that they could afford to do up the old Bellas house into something more appropriate for the number of girls who now lived there.

...............

So Chloe’s fourth senior year hadn’t got off to an ideal start. They stuffed up, they struggled to find the right way to recover again, and Beca was strangely distant and uninterested in the Bellas that she had – surprisingly – happily been leading for the last two years.

Until the retreat. Until Beca was interested again, and suddenly, they were back on track. They were going to win worlds.

...............

They won worlds. Beca threw her arms around Chloe after they won, and the girls went out drinking with a few other acapella nerds.

“You should move to New York with me. I’m sure you’ll find some great work there,” Beca mumbled when she woke up, beside Chloe in their shared bed somewhere near lunch time the next day. Chloe still wished something would happen between them, but it hadn’t. She agreed to move to New York anyway.

...............

Beca kissed Chloe one week after they moved into their apartment in New York. The same day, she got an offer for an internship at a vet clinic not far from their apartment that agreed to commit to helping her find work and funding for vet school after the program.

...............

On their first date, the waiter dropped Chloe’s entrée as he was walking out of the kitchen. Their whole meal was free. On a date to an amusement park months later, Beca managed to win a giant stuffed toy, which although she grumbled about trying to fit into their tiny studio apartment, she admitted she was glad she won because it made Chloe happy.

...............

Chloe got into a vet school in LA about the same time Beca got a recording contract requiring her to move to LA, so of course, they moved together. Of course, the rent on their new apartment was insane and Chloe had to get used to driving in actual traffic, but they made it work. They always made it work.

...............

Chloe failed a total of eight courses in her seven-year undergraduate career. In vet school, she failed none, graduating close to the top of her class with a couple of job offers. Beca cheered loudly at her ceremony, even though it meant a few fans recognised her after and swarmed a little.

They went out to dinner that night to celebrate, just the two of them. Or so Chloe thought, until they walked into the function room of the restaurant and were greeted by all of the Bellas.

“I love you so much,” Chloe mumbles, turning and pulling Beca into a firm kiss. “I’m going to marry you one day,” she murmurs as she pulls back, before she can stop herself, but Beca just grins.

“Yeah. Now let’s have fun.”

* * *

“No, Aubs, Beca’s always been my good luck charm. Of course I’m going to marry her,” Chloe shakes her head, the next morning.

“Well, are you going to ask?” Aubrey presses, Chloe shaking her head.

“I’d be happy to, but something tells me she’s about to.”

...............

A week later, Beca proved her right.


	7. Disney

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally, day 7, and I've finished this week-of-prompts-that-took-months.  
> (Prompt: Disney)

“Really, guys? Another Disney movie?” Beca grumbled, taking her seat beside Chloe for yet another regular Bellas’ movie night. She’d been living in this house with her friends for three years now, and had tolerated three years of movie nights every couple of weeks mostly because sometimes they let her pick something stupid. Except the last two months. For the last two months, they’d watched nothing but Disney movies. Tonight was The Princess and the Frog, apparently.

“You totally love them Becs,” Chloe teases, Beca simply rolling her eyes and settling back in the chair as Chloe throws a blanket over their laps as always.

“They’re so good! And there’s so many of them!” Jessica enthuses, quickly backed up by Ashley and, to Beca’s surprise, Stacie.

“Whatever,” Beca ends the conversation with a sigh, lolling her head to the side in annoyance as someone hits play, and the all-too-familiar intro appears on the screen. Chloe shifts beside Beca, causing her head to rest onto Chloe’s shoulder. It’s kind of comfortable, so she doesn’t move.

Her favourite game to play during Bellas movies nights is and always has been the distraction game: how well can she pull someone’s attention away from the movie, and how can she do it? Who gets more engrossed in which movies, and which distractions work best?

So she’s a pain in the ass, sure, but she needs _something_ to do for the two hours every two weeks.

Jessica and Ashley are usually the hardest to distract. They fall into stories, usually cuddled up together, although Jessica has a soft spot for popcorn if it has extra butter on it and offering her some will sometimes break the spell. If it’s a quiet point in the plot, at least. It has not worked at any point in any Disney movie of their months-long marathon.

Chloe is and always has been a multitasker, and she is when it comes to movies – she can’t be distracted, per se, being able to stay focussed on the movie even while responding to Beca’s antics beside her, usually by poking Beca in the leg. Or the side. Or the stomach. Sometimes the cheek. One time, she leant over and licked Beca’s cheek, and Beca hasn’t really tried to distract her much since. Chloe seems strangely uninterested in the Disney movies, actually, spending more time than usual drawing patterns on Beca’s lower thigh with her fingers. It gives Beca a second game, the “what the fuck is Chloe drawing this time?” game.

Stacie’s ability to be distracted is highly dependent on the movie genre – she gets absorbed in horror, but in any other instance, a comment on the attractiveness of anyone on screen will immediately grab her attention. Beca attempted it with The Lion King – “why do people think the Mom lion is hot?” – and just got a weird look. Apparently, Disney sides with horror.

Cynthia-Rose was easily distracted, but mad about it. Beca did it a few times, of course, but the sharp comments to shut up she got in return were a little too sharp for her liking, so she stopped. She had tested it again, with Tarzan, two weeks ago.

“Hey, CR?” she had started, her friend immediately twirling her head around and flipping Beca off. She rolled her eyes and went back to lying on Chloe’s shoulder as she often did these days.

She didn’t dare try and distract Lilly, of course, the girl always seeming to be engaged in something other than the movie anyway. Flo, like CR, tended to get snappy, although Beca found Disney movies did the opposite, causing her to simply wave Beca’s comment off, eyes not leaving the screen.

Amy, was of course, strange – she could be trusted to find some odd way to link whatever Beca tried to draw her into a conversation about back to whatever they were watching and then blank any response.

“Hey Amy, do they play Disney movies in Australia?” Beca had antagonised while they were watching Cinderella.

“If Cinderella was set in Australia they’d be thongs and get your minds out of the gutter you dirty Americans,” she had responded, without hesitation.

“Australia has different dogs right Amy?” she pushed, during Zootopia, hearing Chloe tut about her reference to dogs when there were absolutely no dogs on screen.

“Yeah, they eat babies,” Amy responded, ending the conversation by grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bowl that had somehow ended up beside her despite being meant for everyone.

So, during their painfully persistent Disney move marathon, Beca had not been able to play the distraction game much. Instead, it was the Chloe one, although usually the answer was just… lines. It seemed, this week, that it’d be much the same. Chloe’s hand found its way to Beca’s side of the blanket about fifteen minutes into the movie, fingers tracing swirls just above her knee, until it changed. It became regular, predictable, and Beca quickly lifted her head and glanced towards Chloe, quickly seeing her eyes flicking away from the screen to look back.

“Why are you drawing hearts on my leg?” Beca mumbled, confident everyone else would be too caught up in the movie to hear her.

“Do you always try and guess what I’m drawing?” Chloe whispers in response.

“More interesting than trying to distract them when it’s Disney, although usually you’re just scribbling,” Beca shrugs.

“Actually, I usually write things.”

“What?”

“Yeah…”

“What things?”

“I dunno,” Chloe’s response has a tinge of hesitance that Beca isn’t used to, and when Chloe finally looks away and back to the screen, Beca keeps her gaze fixed.

“Why the hearts, though?” she asks for a second time, noticing Chloe’s hand shift back to her own side of the blanket. She quietly lets herself feel disappointed for a moment, until she hears her soft reply.

“Because I love you, idiot.”

“Cute,” Beca responds, a hint of sarcasm to her voice, not sure what else to say. A few minutes of silence later, she shifts closer, snuggling into Chloe’s side – for once, before Chloe can do it to her. Chloe flinches, slightly, before settling into the cuddle. They don’t move until the end credits.

* * *

“So what this week?” Beca asks, already half-annoyed, as she takes her seat beside Chloe one week later – apparently, they wanted to make these more regular for a while. Fantastic.

“A Bug’s Life!” Stacie enthuses. The title screen confirms a moment later, and the rest of the Bellas are lost to the TV screen.

Except for Chloe, it seems, who is fidgeting around beside Beca, constantly shifting the blanket around over her lap.

“What’s up?” Beca asks, turning to face her.

“Can’t get comfy,” Chloe mumbles, an unfamiliar hint of nerves to her tone.

“Lean on me, if you want,” Beca answers, trying to shrug off her response and ignore her racing heart.

After a moment, Chloe does just that, Beca psyching herself up to shift and wrap her arm around Chloe’s shoulders a moment later.

“You want cuddles?” Chloe asks, seeming a little brighter.

“Maybe,” Beca responds unhelpfully, as her own hand shifts over to rest comfortably just above Chloe’s knee. About halfway through the movie, she starts tracing small hearts across her skin. Chloe never responds.

* * *

“What did you mean when you said you love me?” Beca asks, bursting into Chloe’s room halfway through the next week, two days before their next house movie night is scheduled.

Chloe looks up from the book she was reading, blinking at Beca a few times, before sighing a looking up at the ceiling, no indication she is going to reply.

“I mean, I just… you hadn’t said it like that before, and I don’t know, it’s like-“ Beca starts to stumble, trying to piece thoughts together in her head, wishing she’d planned this more instead of just running in here when she got the confidence to do so. “I know I’m dating Jesse and all but I really don’t like him that way he’s just there and sometimes it feels like maybe we’re more than just friends- and I’m pretty sure I do like you that way. Maybe even love you.”

She regrets the words as soon as they fall out of her mouth, finally looking back up to Chloe – she’s not sure when she looked away – and seeing her crying. Shit. Shit, she doesn’t know how to deal with this, what does she-

“I meant it… like that,” Chloe answers, softly, clearing her throat before continuing, a little closer to her warm and confident self, “I’ve kind of been in love with you for three years, and sometimes I thought that you might feel the same, but then you’d do something that’d make me think otherwise. And you were – are – with Jesse, and I just… I don’t know why I said that the other day. I don’t know why I did it.”

“I really want to kiss you right now,” Beca mumbles, barely clear enough for Chloe to hear, “but I’m going to… talk to him. First. Because I feel the same.”

“Okay,” Chloe responds, wiping at the tears on her cheeks.

Beca hesitates while looking at her, feeling a little sick, knowing that the tears are her fault. She can’t _do_ anything physical, she doesn’t know what to say-

Beca rushes across the room in two big steps, pulling Chloe into a tight hug.

“Friends hug each other. It’s fine,” she assures Chloe, her heart swelling in happiness a little when Chloe lets out a watery laugh in response, arms wrapping tighter around Beca’s upper back.

* * *

They aren’t dating, as such, by the time the next movie night rolls around two days later. Sure, Beca had broken up with Jesse that night, and they’d kinda sent each other shy looks across every room they met in, but there had been no more clear conversations, no more physical attention than the soft touches they already shared in each other’s company before either had said anything about anything more happening between them.

They sit their usual – small – distance apart on their seat in the living room for the movie night, Beca once again asking what movie was on, although failing to add any bite to her tone.

“Wreck-It Ralph, we thought we’d avoid romance for you this week,” Ashley’s response has more detail than Beca expects, causing her to stutter in reply.

“Oh, uh, right, you know I don’t actually care I broke up with him, right? Like I did it because I don’t like him that way?” She explains – for what she feels like is about the eighth time – thankfully receiving only slight acknowledging hums in response while, as always, the movie draws all their attention in.

Much like last week, for everyone except Chloe.

Only this time, Chloe isn’t fidgeting. She’s waiting, patiently, much like Beca, until their friends are distracted. Moments later, sure that they are, Beca shifts into Chloe’s side, Chloe moving her arm to wrap around Beca’s shoulders and pull them closer together. Their spare hands join against Chloe’s thigh not long later – much higher than usual, although still halfway to her knee – and they both let out soft, happy sighs, content to ignore both the movie and the rest of their friends for the next two hours.

They quietly shift apart as the story reaches its crescendo, in mutual understanding that whatever it is that’s happening should be kept out of the Bella’s awareness at least for now. When they all retreat to their rooms, however, Beca joins Chloe in hers.

“We need to discuss choreo for the performance next month at that gallery,” Beca explains – a complete lie, they’d already sorted it out weeks ago – and none of the others seem to suspect anything unusual.

“So… you broke up with him,” Chloe starts, awkwardly, as Beca takes a seat on the end of her bed, Chloe still standing in the centre of the room.

“Yeah… Because, like, of course I don’t… expect anything. But I like you a lot, and I’d kind of like to date you a whole lot more than I’ve ever wanted to date anyone else. If you’d maybe like that too?” Beca answers, just as awkwardly, blushing when Chloe smiles widely and sits herself down close beside her.

“I’d like that a lot.”

* * *

“Hey, Beca, you’ve complained enough about the Disney shit. Want to pick tonight’s movie?” Stacie asks her over dinner a week later, evidently voicing some kind of group-minus-her agreement as everyone else nods in support.

“Um, I dunno,” she starts, feeling Chloe’s hand against her thigh under the table, refusing to glance at her new girlfriend for fear of revealing anything. “Finding Nemo?”

“But- that’s Disney!” Jessica exclaims, uncharacteristically loudly.

“Meh, one of the better ones, though,” Beca responds, pleased when – as she planned – it drags them all into a conversation about what exactly is the best Disney movie. Part of her wants to get involved – especially when Fantasia is suggested, because excuse her, that’s a great display of animation, but it’s not a _movie_ – but a much larger part of her brain is content to shift her own hand under the table and link her fingers with Chloe’s, finishing the rest of her meal with one hand.

When the Bellas’ attention is immediately drawn into the movie the moment it starts, as predictable as ever, Beca once against cuddles into her girlfriend’s side. When Chloe places an affectionate kiss against her forehead, she makes a mental note to look up a list of Disney movies, so she can keep taking advantage of their distraction.


End file.
